WEBVTT - EYL #25 Hometown Hero 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.600 An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:07.480 in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:11.840 accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.840 filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.680 some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:23.320 Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:28.120 Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:31.680 crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.960 one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:38.920 are here illegally your next you will be fined nearly 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:43.000 one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.680 never return. But if you register using our CBP home 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.120 app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:51.280 Do what's right. 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:52.720 Leave now. 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:57.840 Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.000 Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:04.800 Hey guys, welcome back Earn Your Lisia episode twenty five century, 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.040 quarter of a century, quarter of a century. So today's 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:09.600 a very special episode. 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:14.520 A special now, yeah, very very special, very bad, but 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:16.120 I'll give some some background. 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.240 So, first of all, thank you for your support. Earn 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:23.360 Your Lesia podcast is one of the top business podcasts, 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:27.400 not in America, in the world global now in six months. 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.840 It's very humbling. It's very rare to be in the 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.360 top five percent of all podcasts in the world when 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.319 it's over nine hundred thousand podcasts. So first and foremost, 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.520 we cannot do that without you guys support, So thank you, 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:45.440 we appreciate it. And also we have a very special 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.200 guest today, So we're going to talk about the hair 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.920 industry and we're also going to talk about the festival industry. 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:52.440 We're going to talk about business, we're going to talk 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:53.960 about working with friends, a lot of different stuff. 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:55.280 But I'll give you a quick background. 0:01:55.720 --> 0:02:01.680 So Simone Mayor is an entrepreneur and she also is 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:06.920 part of Curly Girl Collective. So Curly Girl Collective they 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.400 have an event called curl Fest. So curl Fest is 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.280 a festival that is done every year in New York City. 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.880 To actually expanding, we'll talk about that. And previously in 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.359 previous year they've had up to thirty five thousand people 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:20.160 come to the fest. 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.440 So that's that's like bigger than basketball arenas. 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:27.480 No, it's huge, it's the biggest. It's the largest natural 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:28.639 hair festival. 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:29.040 In the world, in the world. 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.960 Yeah, and I would probably say one of the largest 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.680 hair festivals, right, I would assume period something alone. 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:38.480 Yeah, period period. 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.920 So it's like the Coachella. It's like the Coachella of 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:42.600 natural hair. 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.760 Yeah, and natural beauty. We like to say natural beauty 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:47.320 because it's broader than just hair. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.760 But wait, we love that the part that she's from 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:51.480 the town of Green No, no, get to that. 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:56.880 So it's very it's very rare to have a top podcast. 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.960 It's very rare to have up to thirty five people, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.360 thirty five thousand people come to a festival and have 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.679 one of the top festivals in America, in the world. 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:10.640 But it's extremely rare to actually go to high school 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.120 and grow up with somebody. So we all come from 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.080 the same neighborhood. We all went to high school together. 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:21.839 So congratulations and yeah, as I said, it's extremely rare 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.440 that you know, we can sit here and have this conversation. 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.600 She's doing big things before us, long before she was 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.400 doing big things, and now we have a platform. So 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.360 we definitely wanted to bring hometown hero. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:39.520 Hometown hair Homecoming Part two. We have valid one. It 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.080 comes home coming party for sure. 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:42.520 So yeah, we come from a special place. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:42.680 Man. 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.000 A lot of people are doing good things. So yeah, 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.600 that's dope. It's really dope. So first and foremost, thank 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:48.120 you for coming. 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:50.840 Welcome, Welcome. Yeah. Yeah. 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:51.080 Yeah. 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:52.680 So we're gonna we're gonna jump right into it. As 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.800 I said, the natural If you're not familiar, the hair 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.000 care industry is huge. It's a billion dollar industry, right, 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.920 especially black women's hair. I think it saying. I've read 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.600 somewhere that the haircare industry, black women make up eighty 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.080 five percent of the dollars that are put into the 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:11.720 haircre industry. 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.000 Right, it's huge. It's like billions of dollars. Right. 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.840 So for years it's been on the side of changing 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.200 your hair like perms and relaxers and things of that nature. 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:26.880 But now it's been a shift in the culture and 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.599 in the world really where now people are moving away 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.440 from that and going more towards natural hair. Like what 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:35.640 they have as far as you know, whether it be dreadlogs, 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.400 whether it be afro, whether it be just curly, And 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:42.600 you know, that's one of the reasons why your festival 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:44.920 was so successful is because you know, it's picked up 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.000 momentum and it's in season right now and hopefully you 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:52.559 know that lasts forever. But you know, so first, first 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.440 and foremost, we're going to talk about the business up here, 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.200 because some people men a lot of times and other 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.880 cultures they may not fully under staying how much money 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:06.960 spent on here. The pressure of hair, The psychology of 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.920 hair is a very important thing right here is extremely important. 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:12.640 Tit doesn't have any here. Yeah, man, he has a beer, 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.400 so we're counting that now. For a while, I was like, 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.640 can I attend the girl first? Of course I got 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.040 no hair, so yeah, so all right, So so here 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.599 psychology of hair for for for even for us we're black, 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:26.880 but we're not women. 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.359 So as a young girl growing up, like, can you 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:29.920 talk about the. 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.039 Psychology of hair and how hair really plays a major 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.359 part in women's lives and yeah. 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:36.920 Self esteem one. 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:44.279 So the psychology of hair, that's a big one. So 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:48.960 I'll give you a high level idea. So for black 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.279 women here is bigger than just hair, right. It represents 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.640 skewed perceptions of beauty that we have been fed since 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:58.640 we were two years old. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.120 It represents, you. 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:11.279 Know, everything that the society deems as innately black or African, 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:16.800 as unkempt, not beautiful. All of these things, from our 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.880 dark skin to our kinky hair, our nose, our texture 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:21.719 of our hear, all of these things have been we 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.320 have been taught that these things are not beautiful. And 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:27.760 and you know, you guys have seen studies with the 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:32.280 doll projects back when these I think it's the seventies 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:38.040 where young girls and boys that we're four and three 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.960 years old, we're given a white doll and a black doll, 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:45.480 and every single time the black doll was deemed ugly 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.640 or not pretty. And this is because it's taught. It's 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:54.400 been taught for generations from your grandparents, you know, combing 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:56.840 your hair and pulling it and saying your hair is 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:01.239 tough and is a mess, and using these these these 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:05.120 words like unpretty and nappy and ugly. These things are 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.200 taught until you know, and for generations, to your parents, 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.600 to your own children, to yourself. And it isn't until 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.800 you actually come to the realization on your own do 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.680 you realize that you kind. 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.040 Of absorb these type of ideals. 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.320 And you may not even know. So for hair, for 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:27.760 Black women, especially, It represents a lot of pain. Sometimes 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:32.600 it represents beauty what we consider beautiful, what men or 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:37.760 society or the media considers beautiful with us. So it's yeah, 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:39.480 it's it's more than just hair. And I say that 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:41.680 all the time that Curly Girl Collective, even though it 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:46.520 says curly or the or curl Fez is presumably about hair, 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.400 it's much large. It's a much larger conversation. Curl Fez 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.560 ironically is not about hair. Curly Girl Collective is not 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.360 about hair. It's about a bigger conversation about changing the 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.239 ideals and societies. You know, Western ideas of beauty. 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.720 Yeah, because I mean systemically for years and we're eighties 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.680 babies and we set this kind off camera, but the 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.040 image of beauty has always been a European ideal. Yea, 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.960 it was straight here, it was very slim, so like 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.200 when you were growing up, it was Barbie dolls and 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.000 it was sports illustrated magazines and none of the women 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.320 look like you. And over the past i'd say ten years, 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:26.920 we've kind of seen that shift. And I think that 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.520 your crew, your collective is doing an amazing job of 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:31.440 doing that or changing the narrative where it's like now 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.400 we see real life actors and actresses and cartoon figures 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.760 that represent us and it's changing, right, So like my 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:43.520 daughter now grows up in the world where that black 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.840 doll is now beautiful because it looks like her. Whereas 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:49.320 you know, for girls your age and girls who grew 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.040 up in that era, it didn't exist exactly, you know, 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.800 so systemically it was put a certain way. But you're 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:57.760 changing that and I think that's amazing, thank you. 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:02.440 Yes, slowly changing the conversation. And we still have some 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:04.040 ways to go, yeah, for sure. 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.000 So let's go into some numbers. So, as I said, 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:10.880 eighty African American or black women represent eighty five percent 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.520 of the beauty industry, even though we're fourteen percent of 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.400 the total population of the United States, right, So and 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.600 then also they estimate the black hair industry at two 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.680 point five billion dollars industry and that's not even including wigs. 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.240 Yeah, so it's kind of undervalue because it doesn't include 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.880 wigs and weaves. And you know, we have mothers and 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.240 we have sisters, so we know, like that's a huge 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:39.440 part of the industry. It's expensive extensions, braids, all these things. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.080 The amount that it costs to put these things in 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:45.440 your hair, right, So from a beautiician standpoint, and the 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.720 amount of money that is sold in those salons, like 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:50.320 it's at a two point five billion. If you add 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:52.800 those things up, we're talking like maybe ten to fifteen billions. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:53.959 So it's a little undervalued in. 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:56.120 The Absolutely, we have a huge. 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:03.080 Power in what we end in the beauty market, and 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.320 it isn't until now that we're actually using the power 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:08.800 to change the conversation of what we want to see 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:13.800 on the aisles represented in the media and changing the 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.240 definition of what is considered beautiful. It's not until now 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.240 we're seeing that we use our own power to make 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:19.760 that shift. 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.079 Yeah, because even I was surprised by some of the numbers. 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.880 So they said that relaxes are down twenty six percent, 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:29.600 so people are moving away from that, right, but there's 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:34.439 still so India imports six million pounds of hair to America. 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.679 China imports one point five million pounds of hair. 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:40.880 It's a lot to American, it's a lot of here. 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:42.000 So that's a lot of hair, right. 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.840 So it's it's really interesting because like I said a 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.680 lot of times, other coach, they don't fully understand because 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:53.120 it's different, like they the hair upkeep is different, right, 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:58.320 So like, what do you think the average cost of 0:10:58.559 --> 0:10:59.240 maintaining here? 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:00.480 Because it's expensive either way. 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.880 Even if you go natural, you still got to maintain naturally, right, 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:04.840 and then if you if you're not natural, then you 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.360 obviously have to maintain that as well. So I've seen 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:09.559 I've heard women say five hundred dollars a month, six 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.560 hundred dollars a month, seven hundred dollars a month. Like 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:13.880 what would you from your friends your personal experience, what 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:15.440 have you seen as far as. 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.600 Like average just buying natural hair products a loon or 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:22.160 hair products a loon, you can spend several hundred dollars 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:22.480 a month. 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:23.559 I think that's easy. 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:28.720 It's the average product is maybe between ten and twenty 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:29.439 five dollars. 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.560 So what product are we talking about? Like what are 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.160 we buying? Is it like shampoos or conditioners? Like what 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:36.600 are we doing? 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:43.280 Shampoos, conditioners made specifically for your hair type, curling creams, 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.160 twist out creams. 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.440 I can list what we call it. We call it 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:49.280 product junkies. 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.560 In a natural hair world, that I could have a 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:55.559 full closet full of natural hair products and I get 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:57.320 access to a lot of them, and I'm still in 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:00.400 the beauty supply store buying products, trying to find new 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.320 things that work with my our hair. And part of 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:08.520 that is because, especially for natural hair women, we're relearning 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.000 how to work with our hair after years of not 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:16.880 being able to use it or or understand how to 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:18.800 make our hair look beautiful when we walk out the 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.880 door or style it. We have to change and relearn 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.640 these things. So anytime a new product comes out and 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.280 shows you your hair look in a different way, everybody's 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:29.560 great runs to go get it. And it's part of 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.840 that relearning process as well, which. 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:32.880 Leads to us. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.880 Yeah, you said something very important. You said that you know, 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.079 we're the biggest consumers of hair right the United States 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.880 and Black culture for sure, but we don't have any 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:45.960 We don't supply it though, which is kind of weird, right, 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.280 Like you would think that because we use it so much, 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.120 that we would actually have independent agencies and companies coming 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.560 out with products to supply. Why do you think that's 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:57.240 not happening in our community. 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.800 To supply hair or the hair products vote. 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.240 We do have some black owned hair products, and we 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.960 try to promote them as much as we can we 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:10.240 don't have as many in the mainstream as we would 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.680 like because of a number of reasons, access to capital 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.040 to be able to produce products at the level and 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.840 at the scale that you would need to to get 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:25.360 it into the big stores. However, Target and big brands 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.199 are seeing the need for that, and you see the change. 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:30.000 You'll see right at the end cap. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:35.360 You'll see hair products made by one person, a black woman, 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:39.440 like let's say Eating Bodyworks, for instance, made by a 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.720 young black woman when she was sixteen years old, in Target, 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.400 or all sorts of other things. There's the Shamee Moistures 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.080 of the World, also made by black men. Richard lu Dennis. 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:52.880 He's huge, but it started in a very humble place, right, 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.640 so independently, and you do see these things changing, and 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.480 a lot more brands in the big stores, the big 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.840 box store now than you did even five years ago. 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.000 Yeah, I mean yeah, we actually researched that as well. 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.920 And one of the things is that, yeah, like you said, Target, Walmart, 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.280 they're all starting to incorporate natural hair products. 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:13.960 And even other companies. 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.240 Are like Loreal and Revel, but like Loreal, they own 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.200 dark and lovely in their own carter daughter. They bought 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.400 Carroll's daughter in Reveel. I think Cream of Nature they own. 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:26.400 So that's a little discouraging on a certain level, right, 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.880 because it's like the kind of question. They're catering towards 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:34.720 black women's hair from black companies, but they don't they 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.520 own those companies, so they still are control of the marketplace, 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.160 even though I mean it's good that they're starting to 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.880 cater towards it. They offer products, right, but they're still 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.560 in control of the money. All right, So we're gonna switch. 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:48.920 We're gonna talk about the festival before it's about the festivals. 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.200 I wanted to just ask a question as far as entrepreneurship, 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.680 because all right, obviously you're passionate about hair, right, something 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:57.800 that you know you've done all your life as far 0:14:57.840 --> 0:14:59.560 as you have hair, and you had hair and you 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.920 know you' but what made you take this idea, come 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:07.520 together with your friends and actually start even if it 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:09.120 didn't start as a business, because you kind of gave 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.160 us some back and round information, But what made you 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.040 actually want to come together and actually start something in 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:15.880 related to the hair care industry? 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:21.760 I think how my friends became my business partners and 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.600 started this was a little serendipitous in a way. I've 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:31.840 always been kind of passionate about diversity and black people 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:35.280 and all of these things and creating avenues for us, 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.960 and so it's always been kind of something what of 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.640 a passion of mine. And how we came together, it 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.760 was just like minded individuals. And when I say that, 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:47.120 I mean reaching out to our network. I didn't know 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.360 there are five of us in Curly Girl collective. Two 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.640 of us went to college together. We went to Temple. 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.880 The three of us went to college together, Jiya and Scheriz, 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.240 Melody and Tracy. I did not know them, but I 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.440 knew another mutual friend, and we kind of just started 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:08.360 talking about it about random musings and natural our hair 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.800 and che transitioning into natural hair was a common topic, 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.440 and just talking and reaching out to our network became 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.240 more of a hobby. We k started the group a 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.760 Google group that grew to about seventy people from anywhere 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.480 from New York to London, to to Africa to Ghana, 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.000 and we just started to talk about our hair every day, 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:34.680 all day and until we realized, Okay, this is something bigger. Obviously, 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.680 this is demand for it. Let's come together and have 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.600 one little meet up at Tracy Tows. We had a meetup. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.920 It was great, it was wonderful. We we learned that 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.040 we missed this face to face experience. 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:54.440 That we couldn't get from googling reviews on a hair product, right, So. 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.560 We did that and then twenty twenty eleven was our 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.440 very first event. We decided to bring it to the masses. 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:08.560 We didn't have really any experience. Three of the members 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.480 weren't advertising. I come from an IT background, another member 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:17.080 came from risk management background. And what we all had 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.280 a vision and we felt like the energy in this 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.800 room and this small apartment in Brooklyn that we came 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.240 randomly came together. There are other people out there that 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.800 really need to feel this, right. So we had our 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:29.600 very first event. 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:30.200 It was great. 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.159 Maybe three hundred people came and nothing but family and 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:34.600 friends and friends of what was. 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:35.119 The first event? 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:37.240 Like what was it? 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.600 It was called Collective Expression, still my very favorite event. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:46.919 We randomly, somehow got a nice high rise duplex in 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:51.080 Manhattan for free, just by reaching out to our network 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.560 and communicating. And we didn't put a deck together from 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.600 pictures from the Brooklyn apartment. We didn't have anything. We 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:02.560 had an idea. We had pictures of what we could do. 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:06.639 We had some emails where we co called a bunch 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.560 of sponsors and our connects, and one. 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:11.040 Of them stuck. 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:12.640 We did some groundwork. 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.720 We did some groundwork. Yeah, we got the place for free. 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:17.120 We didn't have any money. 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.000 All of the sponsors said no, and so one sponsor, 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.760 Miss Jesse's, was the only sponsor that said yes. 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:24.680 She came. 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:29.359 They brought their whole entire crew, brought products for everybody 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:31.919 that came. We had what we call a big chop 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:34.960 at the event, which a young lady who had a 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.680 natural perm cut off of her hair. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.600 At the event, Miss Jesse's did that. It was great. 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.919 We had raffles, it was just a great photo ops, 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:45.680 all sorts of things, and it was just a really 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.400 great experience. And from then that's where Curly Girl Collective 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.760 kind of was born. And for the next few years 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.119 we had small events three hundred and two hundred people, 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.119 and then twenty fourteen curl Fest was born. 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:04.080 And from there, so. 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.560 Now we're gonna go into into carol Fest and how 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:10.000 it actually blew up. All right, So we got the backstory, 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.119 and I'm glad you said that because people a lot 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.040 of times even with our podcast. They're like, oh, how 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:17.479 did y'all just blow up overnight? But nothing happens overnight, right, 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:19.919 They just see the success and they think that it 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:24.040 happens overnight. So they see thirty twenty thirty five thousand 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:26.520 people coming to your events and they're like, how did 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:28.520 this happen? But you know, you you gave some of 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.560 the backstory how you grew it from an apartment in 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:33.640 Brooklyn to three hundred people and. 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:34.800 You just steadily grew it. 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:37.760 So you said in twenty fourteen, that's when it that's 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:38.919 when everything changed. 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:40.200 Right, Yes, So how did it? 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:41.840 Because we're gonna talk about the festival because this is 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.159 this is another top We talked about hair, but I 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.360 think the festival industry within itself is a very interesting 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:51.040 topic didn't cover because festival is huge right now. Look 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:55.440 at Coachella, Essence Festival. It's a bunch of different festivals happens. Yeah, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.280 it's a bunch of Yeah, Governor's Ball, there's a bunch 0:19:59.320 --> 0:19:59.879 of different stuff. 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.040 No, no, what's it called the Jordia Miami Smoking Loud, smoking, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.280 rolling loud, rolling loud, rolling lou in loud. 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.720 So it's a bunch of different festivals right now. And 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.760 obviously it's a business, it's an industry. People are obviously 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.359 making money, but do it if they weren't making it? 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:14.640 Right? 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:16.720 But it's a process to go to that, And a 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:18.760 lot of times people get intimidated because they see something 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.080 like Essence Festival right shout out to Essence, But Essence 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.600 is a huge brand, so they look at it like, well, 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.720 I can't do that because Essence already has millions of 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:29.199 dollars in their bank and they you know, they have 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:33.040 millions of influences and people, so little old me can't 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.960 do that. But you guys just regular people and started, 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.200 as you said, in an apartment in Brooklyn, and you've 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:42.600 established a global brand and thousands, tens of thousands of 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.040 people coming to your events. So can you walk us 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.320 through the process of how you go from three hundred 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:50.119